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Indicator
This page was last updated on 21st December 2024
Meets Criteria:
Yes
Partly
No
No evidence
N/A
Multiple jurisdictions
In England and Wales, sexual offences laws are found in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as amended (SOA England and Wales). The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 contain the rules of evidence which apply to sexual assault offences.
Many of the provisions covered by this review meet good practice standards. For example, there are crimes to cover all forms of non-consensual sexual penetration – by penis, objects and other body parts – of all orifices. Non-penetrative offences are broadly defined to include all forms of sexual assault and most offences carry serious penalties. There is an extensive array of child sexual assault provisions, no moralistic terminology is used, and consensual same-sex sexual activity is not a crime. The age of consent is 16 years throughout the UK.
Note that England and Wales maintains the offence of consensual ‘sexual activity in a public lavatory’ (s 71 SOA England and Wales). The offence applies to same-sex and opposite-sex sexual activity. However, it has historically been used disproportionately to target gay men. Given its association with discrimination against gay men, this offence should be repealed and replaced by a general offence of sexual activity in public. Note that sex in any public place is also an offence under the common law crime of ‘outraging public decency’.
In England and Wales, the laws explicitly state that corroboration of a sexual assault complaint is not required. Other areas of the law that do not meet good practice include the lack of close-in-age defences for child sexual assaults to prevent criminalising consensual sexual activity between young people.
The United Kingdom is a state party to relevant international human rights treaties, including the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is a party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but has not ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence 2011 (Istanbul Convention).
The full assessment of the United Kingdom is available here.
This report examines the status of sexual offences legislation in Commonwealth Europe, assessing good practice and identifying where there are gaps in protection, with a particular focus on women, children, LGBT+ people and people with disability.
This report lays out criteria for good practice human rights compliant laws across four areas of sexual offences legislation, namely rape/sexual assault, age of consent for sexual conduct, treatment of consensual same-sex sexual activity between adults, and sexual offences in relation to people with disability.
Since 2015, the Trust's legislative reform programme has been analysing the need for the reform of sexual offence laws and delivering technical assistance to support such reform. Find out more about our Changing Laws, Changing Lives programme.
